PaulN

I haven’t seen many ex LCY trip reports so here’s a brief one.

This is my first time flying out of London City; when the Mallorca route was reinstated it coincided with the need for a relaxing shorthaul family holiday.

Booking a little late I find that the difference in price between ET and CE is so small we might as well upgrade to CE (we were going to try Economy … honest). Oh well, some extra Tier Points will set us all on the way to Silver next year. Seat maps show E190 on the way out and, I guess, E170 on the way back. With the benefit of Silver membership I snap up row 2 (extra legroom) and 3 on the way out and row 2 (extra legroom in the C seat) on the way back.

The day arrives and luckily I have relatively easy access to LCY via the newly extended London Overground to Shadwell, a quick stroll across the street and onto Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to London City Airport station (lifts available). From the platformat London City it is just an escalator or lift followed by about a 100 yard walk and you’re into the departure and check in area.

BA 8483 LCY-PMI Club Europe

Check in at the Club Europe desk was slower than if we’d just used the Euro Traveller desk (why do Club passengers always seem to take longer to check in?). If you’re used to Heathrow, Gatwick et al the compactness of LCY comes as a pleasant surprise – no schlepping miles from train to desk to lounge to gate. Up an escalator, through a scan your own boarding pass check – make sure you have a decent print out if you did it from home. Quickly through security; no fasttrack needed here, and into the departure area. WH Smiths, duty free and a couple of (pricey) coffee shops are all that will amuse you here as there is no lounge of course for European flights. All is not lost though as LCY have thoughtfully provided free wifi access throughout with a quick sign-up process. Incidentally, we were flying on the 1535 departure on Sunday; I would imagine weekdays are busier.

Quick photo of the departure area





The flight is called so we head for the gate (about another 100 yards!). As we check in there is a call for volunteers to fly next day. 250 Euros each is a tiny bit tempting until the itinerary is read out – fly early next day to Germany from Heathrow and then onto Mallorca later. I think not. The gate area is a bit of a cattle pen for the next 15 minutes, nowhere near enough seats even for an E190 and certainly no priority boarding. However, we do have a celeb amongst us. Louise Redknapp and family penned in with the rest of us and therefore looking just a little less radiant than I’d imagined.

Plane from the gate (sorry it is a terrible pic!)



Boarding starts from both ends of the plane which turns out to be packed out with an unusually high proportion of CE seats (at least 12 rows I estimate which must be nearly 50% of the plane?).

Plenty of legroom in 2C and 2D



Take off is quick and afternoon tea is quickly served. Flight time is only an hour and 50 minutes (scheduled 2:25) so the Purser has to work quickly. A round of sandwiches and a lovely hot scone with jam and cream along with a choice of drinks seems much better than the usual CE fare.

An early arrival into Palma straight to an air bridge (no buses needed here) and a fairly lengthy walk from the A gates to baggage reclaim. 10minutes or so and the priority tagged bags come out and we’re on the way.

(If you’re renting a car all of the rental car pick ups are in the car park opposite the arrivals hall so very easy to get to).

Return BA8484 PMI-LCY

Dropped the family off at departures with the bags and went to return the car. In doing so I missed any signage for circulating around the airport and ended up back on the motorway to Palma. At least with the family not on board I had no need to mind my language which was not for printing here during the 15 minute round trip back to the airport!

BA check in was at desks 62-67. I guess this is the usual place as the Iberia desks are also nearby. Our boarding passes were stamped with lounge access permission. A very short walk to security where we found no other travellers let alone no queue. A quick turn to the right and right again found us in the Miro lounge, a small third party lounge which was nearly empty (we’re on a midweek 1500 departure). A modest selection of drinks and some biscuits and fairly old looking snacks were available.

Miro Lounge





Called for boarding at 1430 as it is quite a walk back to the A gates with passport control on the way; which we were waved through. Looking very much like an emptier return flight we started boarding at 1440 onto what turned out to be an E190 not E170. Hence row 1AC and 2CD no longer exit row seats. The gent beside me in 2D starts enviously eyeing up 1AC which is still empty when the doors are closed for departure. Having had a brief chat with him I leave him to grab it as I am sitting alongside the family.

Take off is a little late with several Air Berlin planes ahead of us (seems to be a big location for them?) but once airborne around come the sandwiches, scones and drinks again to a much emptier 7 row CE cabin.

Afternoon tea (there were 3 sandwiches but I only remembered to take the pic after I had scoffed two)




Arrival into LCY bang on time and baggage grabbed within about 15 mins. Another few steps and you're through customs and back into the check in area. DLR/Overground and home.

Hope this was interesting or useful. Hopefully the mods will give this a little run in the BA forum before moving across to trips forum.

heckenhocker

looks like small cakes on the inbound, as well as scones?

And you did well with timing, LCY is often a zoo, I don't think I've ever seen so many empty seats there!

Thanks for the nice report

Prospero

A lovely report PaulN. The vast legroom in 2C/2D never fails to amaze me.

origin

I hope you read the thread about the correct procedure when eating the Scones. Cream on first.

IAMORGAN

Don't start:jam first and that's final

Good TR- thanks for sharing!

cornishsimon

Wash your mouth out !!!!!

MarkLHR

Good trip report.
In July I did LCY-IBZ on a Sunday. Good experience like you at LCY. No airbridges at IBZ so bussed to the terminal.

Here's a picture of the three sandwiches!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4914336...in/photostream

and one of the E190 legroom http://www.flickr.com/photos/4914336...in/photostream

origin

I was only trying to put this TR back on to the front page.

Actually thinking about it, that is the way I do it as well.

PaulN

I don't eat cream so I don't have the jam or cream first conundrum! And yes, heckenhocker, there were a couple of cakes too. All in all a very nice selection for CE.

Thanks for the feedback on the trip report all.

origin

Ahh you are now making me feel bad about the cream. I do, I shouldnt but I do.

I enjoyed reading the TR. I forget to add that earlier, sorry.

UncleDude

So it appears to me that LCY has No Lounge facilities for CE, that the E170 except for the Front row has identical CE seating and Seat Pitch to that in Economy and that LCY is used mainly by Bankers...Oh and the fare CE is on average £150 each way more.

12 rows of CE, paying on average £150 more for 3 small sandwiches, 2 miniscule cakes, a scone with Old Cream and Jam...they must all be Xankers.

No wonder most the worlds Banking system is in such distress.

origin

I dont see how you get the £150 more.

I dont understand why the lack of lounge affects anything.

PaulN

I'm definitely not one of them thanks. Don't forget the extra Tier points.

OPebble

Thought the Miro lounge was an IB lounge?

Certainly the similarly named one at BCN is or am I getting confused in my old age?

PaulN

You might be right though I don't remember seeing any branding. I just used the "third party" terminology from the lounge database.